Eastern Standard

The Eastern Standard is a bright spot for Boston--a city hopelessly devoted to chain restaurants, fads that peaked five years ago, and theme dining. The highlights of the cavernous spot are the raw bar and the cocktails. Really, you could make a meal out of just these two elements and ignore the menu, which would be just fine. The bartenders are the stars here, creating artisanal drinks from high quality ingredients. If you've got questions, the waitstaff will answer them. And, in fact, I encourage you to have questions, because when you see a drink called Metamorphosis which is described as "A Czech's bee's knees, transformative bitters with lemon and honey," and you don't have a question or two, you're not asking enough of life in general. After you've eaten your weight in raw bits and drank things only Seuss could have dreamed up, you might be tempted to sample the rest of the fare. You won't be disappointed, but you might not be wowed either. It is heavy, standard food, which leans on decadence to make up for what it lacks in actual interest. There's your chicken, and your steak, and a burger. All of it is serviceable, but also far from memorable. Their offal dishes tend to stand out among the rest, but really, who isn't doing offal these days? Stick to cocktails and raw things and leave light and happy, I say.